If you have kids, it is hard to know exactly what they are doing online. But it's more important than ever to keep having conversations with them about online safety.
The FBI recently issued a public safety alert regarding an explosion of financial sextortion incidents involving children and teens.
NBC10 Boston talked to a man in his early 20s, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, who was targeted in a common scenario.
"I had, like, a very short moment of panic," he said.
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Someone hacked his social media account, took the sexually explicit photos saved there and contacted him with a threat.
"He had the screenshots of those photos of myself and he said, 'Hey, listen, I'll send these to all of your family, which I also have listed here through your public profile on social media,'" he said. "'And I'll send this photo to everyone if you don't give me any money.'"
He refused to pay, and within minutes, the photos were sent out to his relatives.
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"I never would have thought that would happened to me," he said. "Just the fact that there's people out there with that motive is pretty dark."
Teenagers, especially boys between the ages of 14 and 17, are being targeted in similar financial sextortion schemes, which led to more than a dozen suicides in the United States last year.
Special Agent Eric Slaton, supervisor of the FBI Boston Division's Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force, calls it an epidemic.
"There are thousands of kids worldwide that are going through this," he said.
Criminals coerce teens into sending sexually explicit images and then threaten to distribute the pictures to people they know if they don't send more images or pay up.
"The sextortion where you're looking to obtain sexually explicit images," said Slaton, "they are more child predators that are looking to engage and force minors to produce the images. The financial scam of financial sextortion, they're looking for monies, either through a Paypal account or credit cards."
According to the FBI, victims come from every background and demographic and are targeted through all internet devices. Kids who are active on social media, video chat apps or online gaming platforms are vulnerable.
Your child may be convinced they are talking to a kid from the next town over.
"We prosecute a lot of individuals who are, you know, 50-, 60-year-old men pretending to be teenage girls or teenage boys that engage with minor victims as romantic interests," said Slaton. "And as that relationship builds, images may be exchanged. So it's one of those things that we drive home … be careful who you're speaking with, because they may not always be the person who you think they are."
Parents are urged to talk to their kids to prevent this crime before it happens, and to reassure their children that they are there for them.
"Number one message is know who you're talking to online," said Slaton. "And remember, whatever you send downrange -- whether it's an image, a video or a text -- that you lose control of that. We encourage, when we speak to schools, for these students to reach out to a person that they trust -- a teacher, a police officer, physician, a parent -- not to be embarrassed by this … they've done nothing wrong. And, you know, we are imploring them to report it to authorities."
The man who shared his story with us reached out to his uncle, who helped him navigate the situation.
"I did have a little breakdown," he said. "It was scary. But I really just had to, like, sit back and trust that, you know, my family loves me."
It can be difficult as a parent to get your teens to listen to you and convince them that people aren't always who they say they are. But keep hammering home that message.
If this happens, kids are advised to block the predator and try to screen capture the conversations and profile, because that can be helpful to law enforcement in identifying and stopping them.
You can find more information about sextortion and how to report it on the FBI Boston Division's website.
